Books with Tropes I Like

So a couple of weeks back, I did a post about tropes that don’t bother me (and some I even like) and Katie @Never Not Reading requested that I do a follow up with recommendations in each of the categories. And since I am nothing if not accommodating, I obliged 😉 Althoughhhhh, I have to be honest, this might not be the most comprehensive list in the world, since a fair amount of the time I pick up books with these tropes, they disappoint. Either way, here are some books I did enjoy:

Forbidden Love

Gotta admit, this was the easiest category to do- there are just so many!!! And I love them all!! (most of the time 😉 )

Fake Dating

Ah this was the toughest. Truth be told, ever since I picked up To All the Boys, I’ve been trying to find more in this category, but a lot of them fall flat. Still, there are some good ones out there if you know where to look 😉

Enemies to Lovers

I had so many for this, but I decided to split them up so that there would be some for my other fave trope…

Secretly a sweetheart

Yeah there’s a lot of overlap with Enemies to Lovers here! These two tropes go hand in hand for a reason!

Descent into darkness

Annnd basically every other Shakespearean tragedy 😉

Redemptive arcs

This was another super popular one in classics- maybe because it is a classic! (oof- that joke was painful-I’ll see myself out)

Rags to riches/Cinderella stories

Is it just me or does this happen more in movies? I could think of a gazillion rom coms with this and for some reason it was a struggle to think of more than a few books! (I also think someone’s going to tell me at least one in the comments that I’ll be kicking myself for not remembering).

Do you like any of my recs? Or do you plan on checking any of these out? And do you have any recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments!

Forbidden love – I’d include Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, one of my all-time favorite stories. A murder trial set against the backdrop of Japanese internment by the US government during WWII, it is beautifully and succinctly realized. And the love story – in the end, unrequited as it had to be.

hehehe I feel so weird explaining this: people who have to fake date for *plot reasons* and end up falling in love- it’s verrry typically in the romance genre (and so not something you’re likely to have come across 😉 )

Ah!! This list is EVERYTHING! I adore the Demon King, TATBILB (only seen the movie, but shhhh, haha), The Hunger Games, Scythe, The Dream Thieves, Cinder, Geekerella, Throne of Glass, The Wicked King, and To Kill a Kingdom. *sucks in breath* Whew, that was a lot! Haha. They’re all amazing though! ❤

I think I might call A Little Princess a reverse Cinderella story. She’s well off at first and then loses everything and is relegated to servitude. From that point until the end I see the Cinderella aspects, since she does find a way back to being a “princess”. But for some reason her “fall” stands out more in my mind than her eventual rise.

I love Redemptive arcs, especially in ASOIAF and Broken Empire, the darker the character the better. It’s really good to see someone who was not on the straight and narrow trying to get his act together and especially the reasons behind that ^^ Ennemies to lovers that is awesome, I recently read Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson and it is an important part of the story. If you haven’t read it I definitively recommend it =)

You featured some amazing books in this post, and some of my favourite tropes as well. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is one of my all-time favourites, I just love the relationship between Karou and Akiva, and enemies to lovers is actually one of my top tropes. I just can’t resist it. Carry On is a must, but I also loved The Wicked King (and am so excited for The Queen of Nothing too).
Great post. 🙂 ❤

Gotta love all these tropes, especially Forbidden Love! A real classic and just wonderful to read about when done well. Romeo and Juliet will always be the first story that comes to my mind when I think about it. 😄❤

Love secretly a sweetheart and Fake Dating… though these are even more fun in #kdramas so yeah favorite tropes!! Though I’m never without an enemies to lovers read… this is hands down my favorite YA trope. Though forbidden love and friend to lover are others. Great recommendations! ❤

These are all my favorite tropes too especially forbidden love and enemies to lovers! Another top favorite of mine is hate to love. I’ve read some of these books in the list and I totally agree with them. I loved The Hating Game, Autoboyography, TOG, Adorkable, Fill In Boyfriend, Cinder&Ella, and ACOMAF.

Have you read And I Darken by Kiersten White? If you like descent into darkness, I think you’d enjoy The Conqueror’s Saga. Actually I also loved her retelling of Frankenstein, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein.

I am actually not a huge fan of the hate-to-love trope. I feel like there is such a fine line there & oftentimes it is problematic… I DO think P&P did it right.

Huh, I did NOT know Red Rising had a descent into darkness trope. (Why haven’t I read this yet?! I don’t know why either…) And as a fan of manga and Asian media as a kid, I have to say fake dating is one of my favorite tropes too. It’s just so deliciously satisfying when you see two people falling in love unexpectedly, almost like an enemies to lovers trope. 😉

I think most tropes when done well can’t be considered bad at all. It just depends on how much the storyteller commits to making it their own, and I’ll fall in love regardless of whether it’s been done or not. 😛 Terrific list!

Nice choices! This made me realise tropes are a great way to recommend books – I just put several of these on my list, particularly from the enemies to lovers and forbidden love categories – it’s funny how knowing that the books use those tropes makes them more interesting to me 🙂

I have read a ton of these, but a redemption ARC that still brings tears to my eyes was Samantha’s in Before I Fall. I cried for her, because she became such a better person, and I wanted that time loop to end differently.